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Manning Park Resort to close indefinitely April 1 unless buyer can be found

Manning Park Resort will close indefinitely effective April 1 unless a buyer can be found for the operation, which went into receivership in 2009. Campgrounds will remain open.

Photograph by: Handout
, BC Parks

Manning Park Resort seemed to have it all: an enviable location within the heart of a provincial wilderness park, proximity to the Lower Mainland, access via modern Highway 3.

But it wasn’t enough for the four-season destination to avert financial disaster.

The resort, located east of Hope in the Cascade Mountains, will close on April 1 unless a buyer can be found for the operation, which went into receivership in 2009.

“We can’t justify continuing to operate it,” David Bowra, president of the Bowra Group, the receiver-manager, said in an interview Tuesday.

Among the commercial services that will be affected are downhill skiing and groomed cross-country ski trails, lodge and cabin accommodation, heated pool and hot tub, and restaurant and bar.

The Manning Provincial Park campgrounds will remain open along with Lightning Lake day-use areas, trails and backcountry areas.

After completion of the Hope-Princeton Highway in 1949, construction started on a café, administration building and crew quarters. A nature interpretation centre was built in 1957. Manning Park Lodge was later developed on the site, the first such facility in a B.C. provincial park.

A regular user of the park was upset by the pending closure.

“That’s quite tragic, a real stunner for me,” said Wong Wing-Siu of Vancouver, who first went cross-country skiing in Manning in 1972 at age 10. As a boy scout he would also go on camping field trips to Manning in winter, and as an adult continued to return to stay in the lodge or cabins.

The resort, which operates on a provincial lease, generates $5 million to $5.5 million in revenues annually and is profitable during summer and winter, but not the shoulder seasons, Bowra said.

He said he feels the revenues can support a hands-on family-run ownership, although to date no buyer has been found.

“We’re still hopeful we can find someone to take it over as a going concern. I suspect someone will come along and pick it up. I always believe in the market taking care of things.”

The maintenance of 10 campgrounds, both in Manning and the Similkameen area, generates about $850,000 in seasonal revenue and is important to the viability of the resort operation, he said. Operating costs are $600,000 to $650,000. The province typically chips in another $100,000 for repairs and maintenance.

“The campground makes money, no question about it,” Bowra said.

But the resort’s campground agreement expires in October and the province is putting the contract out to public bid “like any other campground in B.C.,” he said.

The inability to package the campground maintenance with the resort is making for a difficult sell. “The resort on its own doesn’t make a lot of sense economically. You need that summer business from the campground.”

Environment Minister Terry Lake said in a statement: “Financial policy prohibits B.C. Parks from direct awarding the campground operations. Anyone interested in purchasing the ski hill is free to bid on the campground operation contract.”

Three or four different groups have expressed interest in buying the resort, and one made an offer of more than $800,000 last fall, a bid that eventually didn’t work out.

“That’s getting in the ballpark,” Bowra said of a potential sales figure.

About 15 year-round full-time employees are losing their jobs; another 15 to 20 part-time employees won’t be hired for the summer season.

The resort’s accommodation manager Charles van Bommel said the resort is year-round home for the permanent employees. “Sorry, I’m a little upset today,” he said, adding he could not talk further about the matter during work hours.

The resort had been operated for several years by Gibson Pass Resort, a company owned by the Bowen family. Bowra said the family made the mistake of spending “close to $2 million” on the heated pool, an excessive expenditure based on revenues.

He added the family was also “using some of the revenue from the resort to fund other businesses they had.” The Coquihalla Highway hasn’t helped, either, by diverting traffic to the Okanagan away from Manning park, Bowra added.

Development of the Callaghan Valley near Whistler for cross-country skiing during the 2010 Olympics has also drained business away from Manning.

The resort is half way through a 50-year lease agreement with the province.

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